Most of us are still catching up on TV from two years ago, but the Peak TV train keeps on rolling. Buzz60's Nathan Rousseau Smith (@fantasticmrnate) has the scoop on the most-anticipated new shows of 2018.
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Avocato, Mooncake and Gary in a scene from the new TBS animated series 'Final Space,' created by Nashville resident Olan Rogers(Photo: Submitted)

Toro Nebula, Sector 463G: Our hero, Gary, has been held captive aboard the prisoner ship Galaxy One for five long years. His crime? Stealing an Infinity Guard uniform and impersonating a pilot. (In his defense, he was trying to impress a girl.)

But Gary’s fortunes suddenly change when he meets an adorable green alien he nicknames “Mooncake” — who also happens to be a “planet-destroying super weapon.” Together, they rocket across the universe to have all sorts of fantastic, funny adventures.

There’s a whole galaxy at play in “Final Space,” an animated TV series that TBS and executive producer Conan O’Brien are banking on being their next big hit.

And it all sprung from the mind of a 30-year-old Nashville resident who’s best known in town for running a soda shop.

Nashville resident Olan Rogers is the creator of 'Final Space,' a new cartoon series on TBS(Photo: Submitted)

Olan Rogers is the ambitious, animated man behind “Final Space,” as well as East Nashville’s quirky Soda Parlor, and the geeky clothing brand Star Cadet.

Oh, and he also has a YouTube channel that’s attracted nearly one million subscribers. But Rogers never really went viral. Instead, he spent the last decade posting cartoon shorts, live-action sketches and monologues about his life and childhood. He says a following formed “by word of mouth” — or the internet’s version of it, anyway.

"I wasn't a flash in the pan,” Rogers tells The Tennessean. “I was kind of like a slow-roasting turkey in the oven that only gets better with time."

'If I had known this, I would have done this much sooner'

Rogers, who’s dubbed himself the “Tennessee Wonder Child,” moved to Nashville from Memphis in 2011. As a kid, he drew constantly. Algebra and English were a struggle, but he thrived in art classes and video production.

“In high school, I did a video project, and the teacher loved it and ended up showing it to every single one of her classes. I remember my mom being thrilled by this, and she said, 'You know, you could get a scholarship by doing those videos.' I was like, 'What? What are you talking about? You can have fun and possibly get a scholarship?'”

He ended up graduating from the University of Memphis with a degree in communications. But it took him losing his job at an airplane repair shop before he dove fully into video work, taking any freelance job he could find. That soon led to a move to Nashville, which offered more opportunities.

Still, the most important work was the stuff he did for himself. On YouTube, Rogers exploded with ambition. He wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, from sci-fi spoofs to a series in which his pet cat, Starscream, appears to pelt him with random objects. He drove around Nashville with his friends for the short-lived “Rollin with Olan,” and shared off-the-cuff stories about his life.

To date, his most popular clip, “Ghost in the Stalls,” is one of his simplest: Rogers tells the story of the time he screamed in a Target bathroom and made another customer think he’d encountered a ghost.

Rogers, describing his bellow: “It was like a whale gave birth to a roaring T-Rex!”

Gary and Mooncake in a scene from 'Final Space'(Photo: Submitted)

One of Rogers’ first YouTube videos, posted in 2010, was a very, very rough version of what “Final Space” would become. “Gary Space” featured the “Gary” and “Mooncake” characters as crayon sketches, bouncing like paper dolls around a blank white background.

Six years later, the concept still stuck with Rogers. He wondered what it would look like with more time, talent and money spent.

“I was getting to a point where I was like, 'I've literally maxed out what one single person can do with a computer ... if I could try to get a budget for something, I think I could make something pretty cool.'”

He was fortunate to cross paths with New Form Digital, an incubator studio led by several entertainment executives, including Ron Howard. They helped fund a pilot for “Final Space” — a dazzling 8-minute short that was light-years beyond Rogers’ first take.

The video hit the web in April of 2016. By the end of the first day, Rogers says, TV studios were emailing him, wanting to meet.

“I was like, 'If I had known this, I would have done this much sooner,'” he recalls with a laugh.

Interested parties included O’Brien’s company, Conaco. Rogers remembers being in the parking lot of Nashville’s Turnip Truck grocery when he got the message that O’Brien had watched the pilot, and loved it.

Soon, O’Brien’s company brought him to Los Angeles for meetings with several networks, including TBS. As much as the premise, Rogers was a hit in the TBS meeting, “voicing all the characters and dancing around the conference room,” according to the network’s Thom Hinkle.

“We bought it in the room. So did other networks. We're glad he chose us.”

The 'Wonder Child' goes Hollywood

Since the deal was struck, the “Tennessee Wonder Child” has pretty much stayed in Los Angeles’ orbit. In addition to his roles as creator, writer and producer, he provides the voices of lead protagonist Gary and Mooncake.

And while he now has a team of talent to rely on, he can’t help but stay up late, pitching in on all aspects of production. It’s been a learning process.

“It was kind of like getting thrown into the fire,” Rogers says. “And essentially being (told), 'OK, create a TV show.' I'm like, 'Well I know how to create web content ...'”

TBS’ enthusiasm for “Final Space” hasn’t wavered since that first meeting. The network put up a massive billboard in New York’s Times Square to promote the show, and is hosting a special Nashville screening event at Cumberland Park on Saturday — in a massive green tent shaped like the “Mooncake” alien.

Ahead of the official Monday night premiere on TBS, the first two episodes of “Final Space” were streamed for free online. Rogers’ fanbase seems almost unanimously thrilled with the result, but his hyper brand of comedy didn’t go over well with the first TV critic to review “Final Space.”

The Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman didn’t find the show particularly funny, interesting or well-animated. “… It's hard to imagine (the show’s) audience being large enough to sustain TBS' effort,” he writes.

On the other hand, Rogers’ fans are passionate enough to plan drives from out of state to Nashville to join him at the Saturday celebration. Rogers is looking forward to seeing them, as well as his friends in Music City.

While he's only been here a handful of times in the last year, "(Nashville's) always going to be my home, no matter what,” he says. “I miss that place like crazy.”